Tim Sheehy and other supporters of a new downtown Milwaukee arena are well aware that winning support for public funding will entail climbing a steeper slope than the upper level at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

That is why Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, has included publicly owned Milwaukee cultural attractions in his pre-planning for a task force. And it’s also why the Milwaukee Bucks, who would be the main occupant of a new arena, are trying to point out the BMO Harris Bradley Center also is used by the Milwaukee Admirals, Marquette University men’s basketball, concerts and other events.

“Basketball’s a small part of this,” said Marc Marotta, a Milwaukee attorney, chairman of the BMO Harris Bradley Center board and former Marquette player. “This is really more an examination of where the city wants to be.”

Sheehy said the task force he will convene in early 2013 will make recommendations for where Milwaukee wants to be in 2020 in terms of downtown cultural and entertainment attractions — and how to pay for achieving those goals. Public funding options could include a new sales tax, but that has yet to be determined.

An arena plan needs to be ready by 2015 and a new NBA facility by 2017, when the Bucks lease expires, Marotta said. The cultural attractions, on the other hand, are in immediate need of repairs and upgrades to continue operating, their managers said.

Paul Mathews, president and chief executive officer of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, said he told Sheehy the task force needs to seek new funding sources for what Mathews calls “the big cornerstones of cultural tourism in Milwaukee County.” Those include the county-owned Marcus Center, Milwaukee Public Museum and the Milwaukee County Zoo. Also on the list is the Milwaukee Art Museum, which leases space from the county-owned Milwaukee County War Memorial.

“It’s critical that cultural facilities are included,” Mathews said.

Not only will cultural facilities be paramount, but also crucial will be measuring their impact on the economy and the area’s quality of life. The MMAC task force will explain the economic value of those “cultural assets” and how they improve Milwaukee’s competitiveness, Sheehy said.

Sheehy said he has not decided the size of the task force or a breakdown of private sector, public sector and nonprofit members.

“It will be representative of the community,” he said. “It will be a broad group.”

The Milwaukee Public Museum and the Milwaukee County Zoo both attract a large amount of southeastern Wisconsin residents, said Jay Williams, the museum’s president and chief executive officer.

In terms of needs, the museum already requires $30 million in upkeep for its 50-plus-year-old building at 800 W. Wells St., Williams said. Financially strapped Milwaukee County has not been able to pay the cost for such maintenance.

“No one wants to see their taxes increase,” Williams said. “But we must invest in sports and cultural attractions to keep people here and keep businesses here.”

Williams, Sheehy, Milwaukee County executive Chris Abele and others believe local taxpayers might be willing to support a sales tax if it goes only for capital projects and if it includes an actual ending date.

Sheehy has cited Oklahoma City, which enacted a 1 percent sales tax for civic projects including a downtown arena, as a model for Milwaukee.

“The appeal of the Oklahoma City model is that it’s finite,” Abele said. “There’s no ambiguity on the use of funds.”

Abele said his office will do whatever it can to assist Sheehy and Marotta in the arena/cultural institutions study. Convincing taxpayers to spend big bucks on those institutions will be difficult, but not impossible, Abele said.

“The reason to do this — if we do it — is to add value, growth and jobs and be catalytic and spur development downtown,” Abele said.

One major unknown is the amount of money Bucks owner U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl would contribute to a new downtown arena.

Kohl in May told reporters he would help pay for a building to replace the 24-year-old BMO Harris Bradley Center, but did not specify a dollar amount.

“We’re no longer talking about it in terms of ‘at some point in the future,’” Kohl said. “We’re talking about beginning to make plans to get it done.”

A reporter who contacted Kohl this week for updated comments was told by Bucks spokesman Dan Smyczek that Kohl is “going to withhold from commenting at this time.”

Kohl donated $25 million to the University of Wisconsin’s Kohl Center in Madison, which opened in 1998. The facility is the home for UW men’s and women’s basketball and men’s hockey. Milwaukee native Kohl is a 1956 graduate of UW-Madison.

Smyczek emphasized that the BMO Harris Bradley Center serves more than just the Bucks. The arena also hosts Marquette, the Admirals and concerts and in the past was the site of arena football, indoor soccer and college hockey games.

“The discussion should probably include an overall entertainment venue and not just NBA, although we certainly are a main tenant,” Smyczek said.

All supporters agree that a new public funding source for an arena and the other civic attractions won’t go anywhere with voters unless private- and public-sector leaders can agree to a plan.

In Oklahoma City, business and city leaders forged a coalition that won voter approval for enacting and then extending a sales tax that they say has revived their moribund downtown.

Maria Monreal Cameron, president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, applauded Sheehy for tackling the issue and said a tax may be necessary to support an arena and cultural venues.

“It’s all about tourist attraction and bringing money to the downtown,” she said. “We need it. It’s a quality-of-life issue.”

Steve Marcus, chairman of Milwaukee-based The Marcus Corp., called on elected officials to team with the business community on supporting Sheehy’s task force. His company redeveloped the Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City with financial aid from that city.

“It calls for a lot of leadership right now,” Marcus said of a Milwaukee initiative. “I don’t know if we’re seeing it or not.”

Many hurdles to gaining tax support

If a sales tax is proposed to fund a downtown Milwaukee arena and cultural destinations, voters would be asked to give the proposed tax a thumbs up or down, according to Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

Sheehy cautions that a task force he plans to convene hasn’t even met yet — he is aiming for February or March 2013 — and therefore hasn’t made any recommendations. A referendum on a possible sales tax is “among the possible paths we could take,” he said.

If a tax is proposed for all of Milwaukee County, and possibly surrounding counties, a new taxing authority would need to be approved by the state Legislature, said Dan Thompson, executive director of the Wisconsin League of Municipalities.

“You can petition the Legislature to create a mechanism locally for a multi-municipality sales tax,” Thompson said.

The scenario would be similar to the five-county sales tax the state Legislature barely approved in 1995 to pay for constructing Miller Park. That 0.1 percent tax is scheduled to be collected until 2017 or 2018.

Where voters would get involved would be through an advisory referendum.

In Milwaukee County, for example, supporters would need a vote from the County Board to place an advisory question on the ballot, said Suzette Emmer, deputy election commissioner for the county.

If the voters back a new tax in an advisory referendum, the MMAC could present that information to the Legislature to demonstrate public support, Thompson said.

Voters in specific municipalities would not be able to approve a sales tax in their communities because state law prohibits cities and villages from levying a sales tax, Thompson said.

Counties are allowed to enact a sales tax of up to 0.5 percent. However, Milwaukee County already has a sales tax at the maximum amount.